We all want a warm, comfortable home, but many New Zealand houses are difficult and expensive to heat to healthy temperatures.

Around 35% of the energy used in the average New Zealand household goes on heating your home. If your home doesn't have adequate insulation (like the majority of our homes), a lot of your heat is just wasted.

Improving your home's ability to keep in the heat and smart use of a clean, efficient heating system will make your home more cost-effective to run and warmer and healthier to live in.

Repairs to earthquake damage on your home through the Canterbury Home Repair Programme can expose hard-to-access areas like wall cavities, skillion or flat roofs, and suspended floors, creating the opportunity to install insulation.

Although you will need to pay for any insulation being installed that wasn’t there before the earthquake, the repair process is a great opportunity to get insulation fitted into these places that are normally tricky to access.

New energy rating labels for heat pumps/air conditioners and fridge/freezers are being phased in. It means that for some time, there will be a mix of old and new labels in shops. This fact sheet gives details about the change.